Product Description

Before the machine age, all woodworking was done with handtools. Even now with machinery available for many woodworking operations, some tasks are more easily and efficiently accomplished with handtools. This book celebrates the great heritage of traditional tools while providing practical information on how to integrate their use in one's everyday woodworking. * workshops, benches & clamps * marking & measuring tools * striking tools * * chisels, gouges & drawknives * planes * scrapers, files & rasps * boring tools * * saws * making & restoring hand tools * buying used hand tools *

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #603309 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From the Author
Why I Love Hand Tools
Hand tools excite me, from workaday bench chisels to elegant brass backed saws, and especially my favorites - every kind of plane for shaping and smoothing wood. Of course I love older tools for their beautiful rosewood handles, brass details, and patinas from years of being handled and used, but I appreciate them even more for what they can do. They let me work in a quiet way, with more flexibility, accuracy, and often efficiency than with any machine. Working with hand tools has opened up whole new worlds of working wood. Twenty five years ago I wish I had this book to guide me, with all of its tricks about tuning, sharpening, and using hand tools.

I started CLASSIC HAND TOOLS by making a list of all the hand tools I use, plus some interesting or useful ones worth knowing about. They are organized according to their basic tasks, such as boring, sawing, and planing. I explain the most important tools in the greatest detail, including some of the stories about how they evolved, the trades that adopted them, and what it's like to go searching for them at the biggest tool auction in the world. How do you choose good tools and which do you really need?

As machines have become a part of every shop, greatly speeding the laborious tasks once done entirely by hand, hand tools haven't become obsolete. They never will be, for nothing can replace the intimacy and pleasure of working by hand with good tools.

Customer Reviews

A fine work: but too glossy?
This is both a book to feast the tool collector's eyes on, and a compendium of useful information for restorers and users.

The photographs are gorgeous and the text well-informed and of lasting value. However, these qualities conflict somewhat because the large format makes the book more awkward to use for reference. Don't, though, be put off by my reservation: if you take pleasure in fine old tools, this is one of the best comprehensive books you'll find on the subject.